FLORIDA. The Chick-fil-A at 326 SE 1st Ave in Florida City drew more high-severity violations than any other location in the state during a 90-day inspection window, with inspectors citing the restaurant for seven separate high-priority failures and two intermediate violations between July and October 2026.
Those seven high-severity citations included no written employee health policy, an employee failing to report illness symptoms, improper handwashing technique, food described as being in poor condition or mislabeled, missing shellfish traceability records, no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods, and a person in charge who was either absent or not performing required duties. Inspectors also noted improper sewage or wastewater disposal.
That is not a single bad day. It is a comprehensive breakdown across management, employee conduct, food handling, and facility infrastructure at a single location.
The Violations Across Florida
The Chick-fil-A at 14020 Lunar Dr in Jacksonville accumulated five high-severity violations, among them improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, toxic chemicals stored or labeled incorrectly, and no allergen awareness demonstrated by staff. Inspectors also cited missing shellfish traceability records and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked foods.
The Chick-fil-A at 6050 W Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy in Kissimmee also drew five high-severity citations, including food from an unapproved or unknown source, food not cooked to the required minimum temperature, and improperly cleaned food contact surfaces. Two separate toxic substance violations appeared in the same inspection.
The Chick-fil-A #01918 at 3166 Daniels Rd in Winter Garden was cited for parasite destruction procedures not followed, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, toxic chemicals improperly stored, and no consumer advisory for raw or undercooked items, along with improper sewage disposal and inadequate ventilation.
The Chick-fil-A Sanford FSR #03800 at 4590 W State Road 46 drew the most total violations of any location on this list, with four high-severity and three intermediate citations. Those included two separate chemical storage violations, no allergen awareness, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, multi-use utensils not properly cleaned, and improper sewage disposal.
The Chick-fil-A 04625 at 9500 McKenna Dr in Orlando was cited for food from an unapproved source, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, no consumer advisory, no allergen awareness, improper sewage disposal, and inadequate cold holding equipment.
The Chick-fil-A at 1541 County Road 220 in Fleming Island drew citations for improper handwashing technique, toxic chemicals improperly stored, no allergen awareness, no consumer advisory, and improper sewage disposal.
The Chick-fil-A Sand Lake Road at 7333 W Sand Lake Rd in Orlando was cited for missing shellfish traceability records, parasite destruction procedures not followed, no consumer advisory, toxic substances improperly identified or stored, and improper sewage disposal.
The Chick-fil-A Mandarin at 3280 Oak Bluff Ln in Jacksonville drew four high-severity citations including a person in charge not present or not performing duties, an employee not reporting illness symptoms, improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, and no consumer advisory.
The Chick-fil-A at Cypress Creek Town Center in Lutz was cited for food not cooked to required minimum temperature and missing shellfish traceability records, along with inadequate ventilation and inadequate toilet facilities.
The Chain-Wide Picture
Across all 216 Florida locations, Chick-fil-A carried a 95.83 percent pass rate over 4,071 inspections on record, with an average of 3.43 violations per inspection. That pass rate is high relative to many chain competitors in the state.
But a 95.83 percent pass rate still means roughly 1 in 24 inspections results in a failure. Across a chain this size, that translates to a meaningful number of citations in any given quarter.
No Florida Chick-fil-A location was emergency-closed during the period covered by this data.
What These Violations Mean
Several of the most serious violations documented at these locations involve direct disease transmission routes. At both the Florida City location and Chick-fil-A Mandarin in Jacksonville, inspectors cited employees not reporting illness symptoms. That is not a paperwork failure. Norovirus, which causes the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings, spreads directly from an infected food worker to a customer through contaminated food. A location without a functioning employee health policy has no mechanism to remove a sick worker from food preparation before illness spreads.
The Florida City location was also cited for having no written employee health policy at all, meaning there is no documented standard for when workers must stay home or report symptoms to management. The absence of a person in charge performing required duties compounds this: CDC data links establishments without active managerial control to three times more critical violations than comparable locations with engaged management.
Chemical storage violations appeared at five of the ten locations, including Winter Garden, Jacksonville on Lunar Drive, Sanford, Fleming Island, and Sand Lake Road in Orlando. Improperly stored or unlabeled chemicals near food preparation areas carry a direct risk of acute poisoning through contamination or mislabeling. At the Sanford and Kissimmee locations, two separate toxic substance citations appeared in the same inspection, suggesting a systemic rather than isolated lapse.
Allergen awareness failures were documented at four locations: Jacksonville on Lunar Drive, Kissimmee, Sanford, and both Orlando locations. Food allergies affect 32 million Americans, and a staff that cannot identify or communicate allergen information to a customer places those individuals at direct risk. That citation, combined with the missing consumer advisories documented at seven of the ten locations, means customers at those restaurants had no formal mechanism to make informed choices about raw, undercooked, or allergenic items.
The Longer Record
The statewide inspection record for Chick-fil-A in Florida runs to 4,071 inspections across 216 locations, a deep enough history to identify meaningful patterns. The chain's overall pass rate suggests that the majority of its Florida restaurants perform consistently within state standards. The ten locations flagged in this reporting represent the tail end of that distribution, not the median.
The Florida City location stands apart. Seven high-severity violations in a single inspection window, spanning management accountability, employee illness reporting, handwashing technique, food condition, shellfish records, consumer advisories, and wastewater disposal, is a pattern that cuts across every layer of operation. A single violation in one category can be an oversight. Seven violations spanning management, employee conduct, food sourcing, and facility infrastructure in the same period is a different kind of finding.
The two Jacksonville locations, Lunar Drive and Mandarin, each drew four or five high-severity citations during the same 90-day window, suggesting that regional oversight in that market warrants a closer look. Both cited missing consumer advisories. Mandarin also cited a person in charge not performing duties, the same management failure found at Florida City.
The Kissimmee location on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway drew a citation for food not cooked to required minimum temperature, the most direct pathway to a Salmonella outbreak in a poultry-focused chain. Salmonella survives in chicken below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. That citation appeared alongside a food-from-unapproved-source violation, meaning inspectors could not verify the supply chain for food that was also not being cooked to the temperature required to destroy pathogens in it.
